Fresh

Canada’s National Energy Board released fresh evidence that the turning point in conventional western Canadian supplies has arrived. Despite strong prices and spare capacity on the TransCanada system, the board’s monitoring system has registered the third straight monthly decline in deliveries to the United States.

Canada’s National Energy Board released fresh evidence that the turning point in conventional western Canadian supplies has arrived. Despite strong prices and spare capacity on the TransCanada system, the board’s monitoring system has registered the third straight monthly decline in deliveries to the United States.

Bolstered primarily by fresh screen strength and also by hot weather in the Gulf Coast states and much of the West, the initial May aftermarket was launched Friday with across-the-board advances over end-of-May numbers. A few points were confined to single-digit gains, but the overall market’s upticks ranged from about a dime to 30 cents.

With little fresh information on which to base their decisions, natural gas futures traders played it safe Friday in the abbreviated, pre-holiday-weekend session. Light short-covering in the early afternoon was only thing conspicuous in an otherwise featureless trading session. June finished at $6.119, up 8.4 cents for the session and just a few ticks short of the prior Friday’s $6.122 closing price.

With little fresh fundamental news of its own, the natural gas futures market was a slave to the whims of other markets’ traders Friday. After dropping lower at the opening bell in sympathy with 30-cent losses in the cash market, natural gas futures regrouped and trended higher during the open-outcry session, as buyers fed off the strength in the nearby crude oil pit.

Fresh off of the issuance of a Department of Energy (DOE) study finding solid net benefits from FERC’s proposed standard market design (SMD), FERC Chairman Pat Wood last Wednesday said that he wants to “take the lead” from Congress in terms of the timing for implementing a final rule in the SMD proceeding.

With few fresh fundamental factors on which to trade, natural gas futures prices chopped lower Tuesday in agreement with increasingly bearish technical factors. The May contract was hardest hit by the selling, dipping 6.8 cents to close at $5.645. After two days of quiet trading, activity picked up on Tuesday and added credence to the down move. Estimated volume was 67,340.

With little fresh news on which to trade, natural gas futures chopped sideways Friday in light pre-weekend book squaring. Bears were content that Thursday’s gains did not carry over into Friday’s trading. Bulls, meanwhile, rested on their 47-cent gain for the week. May finished at $5.411, down a trifling 0.8 cents for the session.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental or technical influence to provide direction, the natural gas futures market took the path of least resistance Wednesday in extending to new nine-week lows. Although the series of lower lows and lower highs on the daily bar chart is a very real concern for bulls, they were impressed by the market’s ability to rebound off its mid-morning lows. A intense, albeit brief, sell-off in the afternoon sent prices back beneath the $5.00 mark, but that, too, became a buying opportunity. The May contract finished at $5.065, down 6 cents for the day, but up 13.5 cents from its $4.93 low.